1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine with means for improving compression and combustion, as well as the air and mixture intake and gas exhaustion strokes or stages. More particularly the invention relates to an internal combustion engine comprising at least one cylinder and a power piston reciprocating within the cylinder, wherein the cylinder lacks the conventional stationary head and includes, instead of such head, a control piston reciprocating within the cylinder bore and interacting with the power piston to define, therebetween, a combustion chamber with variable volume, wherein the control piston is actuated by hydraulic transmission means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known to provide internal combustion engines with a cylinder head that is stationary to define, between the head and the power piston reciprocating within the cylinder bore of the engine a compression and combustion chamber. It is also known to replace the stationary head of the cylinder by a movable head or, better, by an additional piston that moves directly within the cylinder bore or within additional cavities or secondary bores to interrelate with the power piston to define a combustion and compression chamber with variable volume. All of the attempts made to design these double piston engines have failed in comprising a huge number of mechanical components wherein the friction forces, the couplings and adjustments to guarantee controlled cycles of operation have caused to make the operation of the engine very complex and unreliable.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,564,009 to Myers, discloses a gas engine comprising a cylinder, a piston and a moving head defined by a piston valve adapted to be adjusted with respect to said piston, whereby to vary the compression space, means for varying the compression space and the quantity of mixture taken into said cylinder. The valve piston is moving under the control of a spring and a cam having several profiles that cause the system to be practically impossible to be operated at high number of revolutions. In addition, no fluid pressure chambers are included to assist the valve piston to removing spent gases and to injecting mixture into the compression chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,435 to Faulconer Jr. discloses an internal combustion engine with a power piston and a control piston moving against and far from each other to define between the pistons a combustion chamber, with the pistons being connected by a chain transmission system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,206 to Radovic discloses an internal combustion engine with a cylinder housing two pistons reciprocating against and away from each other to define a variable chamber, one of the pistons being connected to a crankshaft and the other being actuated by a cam.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,074 to Winn discloses an internal combustion engine with a cylinder within which a pair of pistons reciprocate against and away from each other defining a variable chamber, with one of the pistons being connected to a crankshaft and the other being actuated by a set of articulated arms which in turn are moved by a cam-follower system.
Other internal combustion engines having two or more pistons defining variable chambers therebetween, are disclosed in other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,243 to Arndt; U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,362, to Weinreb; U.S. Pat. No. 1,835,138, to Bowman; U.S. Pat. No. 1,744,117, to Held; U.S. Pat. No. 1,574,062, to Bohemer; U.S. Pat. No. 1,557,710, to Lennon; U.S. Pat. No. 1,521,077, to Clegg; U.S. Pat. No. 1,464,164, to Alaire; U.S. Pat. No. 1,461,080, to Berger; U.S. Pat. No. 1,138,919, to Willey et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 1,135,942, to Logan; DE U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,133.
Many other engines have been developed to modify the volume of the compression chambers and improve the compression ratio, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,843, to Chang; U. S. Pat. No. 5,195,469, to Syed; U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,432, to Ballheimer; U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,890, to Iwata; E.P. Publication Nos. 0426540 A1; 0438121 A1; and WO Publication Nos. WO 92/09799, WO 93/23664 and WO 94/00681.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an internal combustion engine comprising at least one cylinder and a power piston reciprocatably moving within the cylinder, wherein the cylinder stationary head of a conventional engine is replaced by a control piston interrelated to the power piston to define a combustion chamber with variable volume, the control piston being actuated by an hydraulic transmission assembly.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber with variable volume to define the best operative conditions for each of the operation cycles or stages such as, the compression rate, combustion chamber filling, combustion and exhaustion.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an internal combustion engine that provide means for substantially entirely expelling the haust gases from the cylinder bore of the engine, as well as for getting a better incoming of the inlet mixture into the combustion chamber, wherein the mixture not only is admitted under the suction of the power piston but it is also injected into the chamber under the pressure generated by a control piston also moving within the cylinder.
It is even another object of the present invention to provide an internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder block including at least one cylinder bore, a power piston which reciprocates in the cylinder and is connected to a rod which in turn is connected to a crankshaft, a control piston reciprocating in the cylinder and a combustion chamber defined between both said pistons, the power piston and the control piston moving within the cylinder bore in a way to cause the combustion chamber to define a variable volume, the engine further comprising hydraulic transmission means connecting said control piston to the crankshaft.
It is still another object to provide an internal combustion engine comprising a power piston acting against a control piston and a combustion chamber defined between both pistons, the control piston being controlled by hydraulic transmission means to get the maximum power from the combustion cycle by generating the combustion once the lever arm defined in the crankshaft is the largest one, therefore obtaining the highest power yields, with the engine stages or cycles comprising mixture intake stage, compression stage, translation stage, explosion stage and exhaust stage. The hydraulic transmission means are regulated to move the control piston coaxially with the power piston, at the same or different speed, in the same and opposite direction. When the control piston moves at the same speed and direction like the power piston the combustion chamber will have a constant volume, while with the control and power pistons moving at different speeds the compression chamber will increase or decrease its volume.
The above combined movement of the control and power pistons not only improve the power during compression and combustion but also improves the expelling of entirely all of the burned gases without residues remaining in the compression chamber. With the inventive engine more fuel savings are obtained, the temperature is lower and the heat is rapidly dissipated, the crankshaft does not need to be reinforced, in fact it may be lighter than conventional crankshafts as long as the combustion forces are transmitted along a better lever arm with the crank at an open angular position, wherein not intermediate bearing supports are necessary but only bearings at the ends of the crankshaft may be provided.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and description.